The Cider House Rules

From one of America's most beloved and respected writers comes the classic story of Homer Wells, an orphan, and Wilbur Larch, a doctor without children of his own, who develop an extraordinary bond with one another.

This book is much deeper than I remembered from reading it years ago and also seeing the movie. Irving creates 3-dimensional characters and places them in a compelling story to examine the question of whether it's better to be unwanted or unborn. Really well done, including the narration.

State of Wonder: A Novel

Research scientist Dr. Marina Singh is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have disappeared in the Amazon while working on an extremely valuable new drug. The last person who was sent to find her died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding answers to the questions about her friend's death, her company's future, and her own past.

I've been a member of Audible for years and am a voracious listener, and this is probably the best book I've ever "read" on the site. Captivating story. Describes a fascinating place as the backdrop of a riveting story line. Developed characters. Excellent plot. Well read. Well worth listening to.

The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty

Borderline personality disorder, autism, narcissism, psychosis, Asperger's: All of these syndromes have one thing in common---lack of empathy. In some cases, this absence can be dangerous, but in others it can simply mean a different way of seeing the world. In The Science of Evil, Simon Baron-Cohen, an award-winning British researcher who has investigated psychology and autism for decades, develops a new brain-based theory of human cruelty.

Novel take on empathy, particularly for those of us who have studied psychology and are familiar with the disorders he's referring to. I had never thought of borderlines as lacking in empathy before -- I work with quite a few of them -- and it's a point of view worth considering. Not so sure that it adequately covers the subject of evil, though -- or perhaps it's just that it takes the punch out. If you want to get back on steady footing, watch Ted Bundy's swan song interview where he blames his crimes on the proliferation of pornography, saying he was just an

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

The Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey through the minds of madness. Jon Ronson's exploration of a potential hoax being played on the world's top neurologists takes him, unexpectedly, into the heart of the madness industry. An influential psychologist who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are, in fact, psychopaths teaches Ronson how to spot these high-flying individuals by looking out for little telltale verbal and nonverbal clues.

My kind of audiobook! I find the subject of psychopathy endlessly interesting and this one is well written and entertainingly illustrated with tales of various psychopaths. Well worth it if you like true life psychological thrillers.

The Winds of War

Herman Wouk's sweeping epic of World War II stands as the crowning achievement of one of America's most celebrated storytellers. Like no other books about the war, Wouk's spellbinding narrative captures the tide of global events - and all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of World War II - as it immerses us in the lives of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom.

The Kitchen House: A Novel

Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin. Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction.

Red Hook Road

A marriage collapses under the strain of a daughter’s death; two bereaved siblings find comfort in one another; and an adopted young girl breathes new life into her family with her prodigious talent for the violin. As she writes with obvious affection for these unforgettable characters, Ayelet Waldman skillfully interweaves life’s finer pleasures—music and literature—with the more mundane joys of living.

Having enjoyed the writer's previous books I was looking forward to listening to this one, but am disappointed. The characters are flat and the story is depressing, dull, and unoriginal. The narration seems forced and serves to highlight the novel's flaws.

Blood Brothers: Sign of Seven, Book 1

Every seven years, on the seventh day of the seventh month, strange things happen. It began when three young boys - Caleb, Fox, and Gage - went on a camping trip to the Pagan Stone. And 21 years later, it will end in a showdown between evil and the boys who have become men - and the women who love them.

made this painful to listen to at points, especially the uneven, ostensibly New York accent of one of the main female characters. Light entertainment otherwise, and would have gone down a lot easier with much less narrative dramatization. Audio publishers, please think twice about having male narrators enact the voices of women characters -- this one sounds like he's doing mock drag.

Every Last One

In this breathtaking and beautiful novel, the #1 New York Times best-selling author Anna Quindlen creates an unforgettable portrait of a mother, a father, a family, and the explosive, violent consequences of what seem like inconsequential actions.

The Three Weissmanns of Westport

Sisters Miranda, an impulsive but successful literary agent, and Annie, a pragmatic library director, quite unexpectedly find themselves the middle-aged products of a broken home. Dumped by her husband of nearly 50 years and then exiled from their elegant New York apartment by his mistress, their mother, Betty, is forced to move to a small, run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach cottage owned by her wealthy and generous cousin Lou.

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